“We delivered 100 cars on Dhanteras, doing business of around Rs 6.5 crore which is really impressive,” he said. “We opened early today and will remain open till 8pm. We did not find any impact of inflation or anything like that; people were purchasing cars happily.”

Two-wheeler dealers were also all smiles, and the volume of their sales, naturally, was bigger.

Shankar Singh, sales manager at Prema Honda on Exhibition Road, said they sold 400 two-wheelers on Monday.

“People have come from faraway places to buy and there were walk-in sales as well,” he said.

Going by the average price of a two-wheeler, the showroom did business worth Rs 2.4 crore. Even second-hand two-wheeler shops did good business. Nalin Kumar, owner of Wheel Home on Bhattacharya Road, said: “Everyone does not have money to purchase a brand new car or bike but Dhanteras being an auspicious day they want to buy two-wheelers. Many such customers visited shops like ours selling affordable second-hand bikes in the price range of Rs 20,000 to Rs 55,000.”

He added: “Till the evening we did business worth Rs 1.5 lakh.”

The festive spirit brought smiles to automobile dealers as residents rushed to buy cars and bikes on Dhanteras on Monday. Sales are up compared to last year, beaming dealers said.

“The mood of the customers was good today because we had planned in advance to ensure delivery on the day of Dhanteras,” said Ribhu Kumar, managing director of Prema Ford located near Sipara Bridge.

“In car sales, walk-in customers are few and most of the purchasing is done in advance. Today we delivered 55 cars and it was better than last year. In the beginning, the booking was quite slow due to kharmas (considered an inauspicious period) but the bookings picked up in the last five to six days.”

He said sales were up by 10 per cent compared to last year, adding that the showroom did business worth Rs 5 crore.

Dhananjay Kumar Piyush, human resources manager of the Karlo Group which has its Maruti showroom in the Boring Road area, said business was “splendid” compared to last year.

The Telegraph